Giving up on Waitrose

SIR – I almost feel ashamed to say that, as a Waitrose customer of 50 years, I too am giving up on the partnership (Allison Pearson, Features, June 2), as my nearby branch is simply barren.

Last weekend I shopped at Booths in Lytham St Annes. The branch was stocked to bursting with all manner of superb fresh, regional and imported seasonal produce, including the most deliciously fragrant local strawberries – items my very empty local branch of Waitrose can only dream about.

The Booths family has been trading since Edwin Booth opened the first store in Blackpool in 1847, some 17 years before John Lewis. Clearly their managers have much to teach Dame Sharon White, chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, who seems reluctant to learn and, despite all her promises, is running John Lewis into the ground. I wonder where she buys her groceries, because it most certainly isn’t my local branch of Waitrose. Heather Erridge Weston-super-Mare, Somerset

SIR – On Thursday morning we ordered two small breakfasts and two black coffees in Morrisons café. This came to £12.36. The cashier brightly told us that it would be cheaper to have the meal deal, which would be two full breakfasts and two black coffees for £10, so we would save money and get more food. It was not possible just to have the small breakfasts and coffees in the deal. We went ahead reluctantly. Needless to say, a vast amount of food arrived. We ate about half of it and, not approving of waste, took the rest home in napkins – bird food, maybe.

Had Morrisons been more flexible it would have saved money by not cooking as much food and we would have been saved from possible overeating. No wonder there is an obesity crisis. Joanna Tattersall Chelmsford, Essex